Improvement in separating paraffine from hydrocarbon oils



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH B. MERIAM, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT lN SEPARATING PARAFFINE FROM l-lYDROCAR BON OILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 177,347, dated May 16, 1876; application filed December 11, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH B. MERIAM, of Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Process for Separat ing Parafiine from Hydrocarbon Oils; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the invention,

ure that is applied the more closely will the such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

My invention relates to an improved process for separating paraffine from hydrocarbon oils.

Heretofore paratfine has usually been removed from hydrocarbon oils by putting the material into sacks or folds of canvas, or folds of hair cloth, &c., and then's'ubjected to pressure at a low temperature. The difficulty, however, in those processes was that the heavier the pressure that was applied the more open would the pores of the bags or sacks become,

and the more readily would the paraffine pass through them, rendering it almost impracticable to make a thorough separation of the paraffine from the oil.

I have discovered that the scales of paraffine that are thus left, after thus extracting the oil by pressure at a low temperature, are

' separate and distinct, and,'except under the temperature, as above described. "The hydrocarbon oil to be treated is then prepared as follows: It is first reduced to a low temperature, sufiiciently to chill it, and leave it in the condition termed granulated. This oil in its chilled granulated condition is then put into the vat upon the paraftlne scales, and then subjected to a pressure under a low temperature, in any convenient way, as, for instance, by a plunger. This pressure drives the oil through the mass of paraffine scales, which filters from it the paraffine that may be contained therein.

It is very evident that the greater the pressparaffme scales be pressed together, and the more perfectly will it filter the paraffine from the oil that is being operated upon. In this way I am enabled to make an almost perfect separation of the parafline from the oil, thus leaving the oil in a practically pure condition. It is evident that the vat will eventually fill with paraffine, and should be removed,'in part,

vfrom time to time, as circumstances may require, leaving at all times a sufficient amount of the par-affine scales in the receptacle to act as'a substantial filter. So, also, it is evident that instead of employing a wire-gauze, screen,

or cloth, any equivalent substance may be employed. t I v I am aware that oil. resting on a body of water has been filtered by forcing the same upward through a filter-cloth, the solid matters gradually collecting and consolidating on the lower surface of the cloth filter, and from whence it is removed and such process I do not claim.

What I claim is- The process of separating parafline from bydrocarbon oils, the same consisting in' first placing a mass of paraftine scales on a rigid screen secured within a proper receptacle, and then forcing chilled hydrocarbon oil through said mass, the strata of par-affine scales that In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH B. MERIAM.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS TOUMEY, EDWARD WALSH. 

